"Economic competition today is, by and large, still competition between people. Once technology emerges that can cheaply and rapidly produce large numbers of highly intelligent people, and that technology is monopolized, ordinary people will find themselves competing against masses of geniuses! The gap in intelligence will lead to enormous disparities in every area, ultimately resulting in the complete replacement of inferior species by superior ones!"
"I once read a science-fiction novel that listed several possible causes of human extinction. Nuclear war, global pandemics, and large-scale natural disasters were all well-known possibilities, but one of them left a particularly deep impression on me."
"That possibility was human evolution!"
"New Humans with vastly improved physiques and intelligence—or superhumans, if you prefer—could very likely wipe out ordinary humans as they exist today in short order. This is no alarmist exaggeration. We could all become red-haired gorillas chained up for display, while this planet came under the control of an evolved species."
"Homo sapiens replaced Neanderthals, and a new species of humans will replace us, Homo sapiens. There is precedent for this in the long history of evolution. One could even say it is bound to happen in the future. It is merely a question of when!"
"Brain Spring Beverage has shown me this threat. I urge the international community to pay attention to technologies of this kind, and in particular to guard against the serious risks they bring!"
Richards rambled on for a long time. The content of his speech was completely out of character. His previous speeches had been filled from beginning to end with data and charts, but this draft sounded like something from a doomsday prophet.
Its central message could be summed up in one sentence: Brain Spring Beverage was terrifying and had to be treated with caution!
Richards's speech